Softwood

“ Giant trees with spreading crowns suppress everything around, kill every rival and leave only small and insignificant shrubs alive. Between them, smaller trees strive for light; on tall, straight, thin stems they have secured a place and developed a crown. Others look for light in roundabout ways, making use of every gap their neighbours leave, and rise upward in soft coils. All these form a high roof, under which younger and weaker plants lead a skimped life—hardwood trees on thin trunks, with small, unassuming leaves, and vulgar softwood with large, flabby foliage. ”

“ The value of the timber that we exported was larger than that of Russia because much of our timber that was sent abroad consisted of the best grades of material grown in this country. In the future, we shall have to compete in the softwood export business with Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and the various states of southeastern Europe which sell lumber. In the hardwood business, we have only a limited number of rivals. With the exception of a small section of eastern Europe, our hardwood forests are the finest in the Temperate Zone. ”

“ Softwoods—The needleleaf species, represented by pines, hemlocks, firs, cedars, cypresses, spruces, larches, sequoias, and yews, are softwoods. The classification of evergreens as softwoods is erroneous, because all softwoods are not evergreen, and all evergreens are not softwoods. Larches and the southern cypress shed their leaves yearly. Most other softwoods drop only a portion of their foliage each season, and enough is always on the branches to make them evergreen. ”

“ Meanwhile their need grew more and more, especially in those places where the felling method did not produce satisfactory regeneration, and softwoods impeded the development of the better kinds. To improve the chances for valuable regeneration and to keep the softwoods down, the foresters proposed the reduction of rotations from 100 to 50 and even 40 years, and, as with each felling the number of reserve trees had to be left, the forest assumed a form resembling the coppice under standards. ”

“ Handle makers and the manufacturers of buggy spokes prefer hickory sapwood, but use the red heartwood if it is the same weight as the sap.
Annual Rings—The trunks of both hardwoods and softwoods are made up of concentric rings. In most instances the eye easily detects them. They are more distinct in a freshly cut trunk than in weathered wood, though in a few instances weathering accentuates rather than obliterates them. A count of the rings gives the tree’s age in years, each ring being the growth of one year. ”

“ The Pacific coast is so abundantly supplied with excellent softwoods that only those of good quality have any chance in the local markets. The fact that western hemlock has won and is holding an important place in active competition with such woods as western red cedar, yellow cedar, Sitka spruce, and Douglas fir, is proof that it is valuable material. It is winning its way in the central part of the United States also, but not as rapidly as it has won in the West. ”

“ Noble fir is of slow growth, and the large trunks are very old, the oldest not less than 800 years. The summerwood forms a narrow, dark band in the annual ring. Medullary rays are numerous, but very thin and inconspicuous. The wood possesses little figure. It weighs twenty-eight pounds per cubic foot, which is four pounds less than the average Douglas fir. It is very low in fuel value, as softwoods usually are which have little resin. It is very weak, and it bends easily. It is soft, easily worked, and polishes well. ”

“ Such woods are called “ring porous,” and the oaks are best examples. In other species the pores are scattered through all parts of the ring in about the same proportion, and such woods are called “diffuse porous,” as the birches. Softwoods have no pores proper, and are classed “non-porous.”
Medullary Rays—A smoothly-cut cross section of almost any oak, but particularly white oak and red oak, exhibits to the unaided eye narrow, light-colored lines radiating from the center of the tree toward the bark like spokes of a wheel. ”

“ The finest beech-wood is that of Mark Ash. There you may see true beech-forms, the boles spangled with silver scales of lichen, and the roots—more fangs than roots—grasping the earth, feathered with the soft green down of moss.
But not in individual trees lies the beauty of the Forest, but in the masses of wood. There, in the long aisles, settles that depth of shade which no pencil can give, and that colouring which no canvas can retain, as the sunlight pierces through the green web of leaves, flinging, as it sets, a crown of gold round each tree-trunk. ”

“ Very rapid in growth, so much so that in the dense forest stands, when a portion of the woods has been cut down, the young saplings cannot always withstand the wind pressure and are blown down. Reaches a height in the forest of a hundred and twenty feet, but in the open is broader and more symmetrical. Too much cannot be said in praise of this tree. Its shade is dense and its autumn colouring superb. The sap yields maple syrup and sugar, and, finally, after it has done its work and is cut down, its wood yields lumber of the highest value, while the limbs make excellent firewood. ”

“ There is nothing like a primeval wood for color on a sunny day. The shades of green and brown are infinite; the dull red of the hemlock bark glows in the sun, the russet of the changing moose-bush becomes brilliant; there are silvery openings here and there; and everywhere the columns rise up to the canopy of tender green which supports the intense blue sky and holds up a part of it from falling through in fragments to the floor of the forest. ”

“ If the pine woods be characterized by cathedral solemnity, and the cedars and tamaracks by certain horrifical gloom, and the popples by a silvery sunshine, and the berry-clearings by grateful heat and the homely manner of familiar birds, then the great hardwood must be known as the dwelling-place of transparent shadows, of cool green lucency, and the repository of immemorial cheerful forest tradition which the traveller can hear of, but which he is never permitted actually to know. ”

“ The flowering dogwood is one of our smaller trees, but is exceptionally favored with all manner of beauty. Although it is very common in many of the States, and is not without its special uses, it occupies a subordinate position in the eyes of the forester, being often no more than a mere shrub in form. And yet, while some of the larger trees by their majestic presence lend grandeur to the forest, the dogwood brings to it a charm not easily forgotten. ”

“ Somehow, the feeling roused by these things loosened my tongue.
“This is an old hard-wood forest,” I began. “Much of the white oak, hickory, ash, maple, is virgin timber. These trees have reached maturity; many are dead at the tops; all of them should have been cut long ago. They make too dense a shade for the seedlings to survive. Look at that bunch of sapling maples. See how they reach up, trying to get to the light. They haven't a branch low down and the tops are thin. Yet maple is one of our hardiest trees. Growth has been suppressed. ”

“ Wood in its quality and uses like white cedar. Thick, red heartwood, changing to reddish brown when seasoned. Thin sapwood, nearly white, coarse, straight grain, compact structure. Light, not strong, soft, very durable in contact with the soil, not resinous, easily worked, does not burn easily, receives high polish. Used for timber, shingles, flumes, fence posts, coffins, railway ties, water pipes, interior decorations, and cabinetmaking. A very large tree, limited to the coast ranges of California, and forming considerable forests, which are rapidly being converted into lumber. ”

“ There are many more kinds or species of these than of evergreens and their forms and characters are more varied. A few have recognized values as shade trees; many more are interesting or attractive in the park or on the lawn; others are never found outside the forest. By way of contrast with that of the conifers, the wood of deciduous trees is called hard, though many kinds are quite soft, and the trees themselves hardwoods. Hardwood lumber is often very beautiful, and is used for many purposes besides furniture, but the world could better get along without it than without soft woods. ”

“ There is a difference in color between the outer and inner wood, the older wood becomes darker and is called the heart-wood, the outer is the sap-wood. In Birds-eye Maple, and some other woods, the abortive buds are seen. They are buried in the wood, and make the disturbance which produces the ornamental grain. In sections of Pine or Spruce, no ducts can be found. The wood consists entirely of elongated, thickened cells or fibres. In some of the trees the pith rays cannot be seen with the naked eye. ”

“ It ranks with lodgepole pine in that respect. Nature can afford to wait two hundred years for a forest to mature, but men will not plant and protect when the prospect of returns is so remote. The wood is light, weak, moderately stiff and hard. The heartwood is pale brown, the sap nearly white. The summerwood appears in thin but well-marked bands in the annual rings, and the medullary rays are large enough to show slightly in quarter-sawed lumber. Growing as it does, interspersed with really valuable woods, the lovely fir is not highly thought of from a commercial standpoint. ”

“ Is it not sad to know that the brave, bold dogwood, holding out its spring flag of truce [Pg 200] from arduous weather, and its autumn store of sustenance for our feathered friends, is in danger of extinction from the forest because its hardy, smooth, even-grained white wood has been found to be especially available in the "arts"? I feel like begging for the life of every dogwood, as too beautiful to be destroyed for any mere utility. ”

“ In winter the woods are comparatively bare and lifeless, even the brambles and woodbine, which straggle over the tangle of underwood, being almost leafless. Still, even then they have a beauty and interest of their own: the mossy boles of the trees, the delicate tracery of the branches, which can hardly be appreciated when they are covered with leaves, and under foot the beds of fallen leaves; while the evergreens seem brighter than in summer, the ruddy stems and rich green foliage of the Scotch pines and the dark spires of the firs seeming to acquire fresh beauty. ”

“ MELLSTOCK-LANE
To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob and moan no less distinctly than they rock; the holly whistles as it battles with itself; the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall. And winter, which modifies the note of such trees as shed their leaves, does not destroy its individuality. ”

“ This is a very important question, as woods that are too hard, too soft, too wet, too oily, too gummy, or too resinous will not produce fire. The wood should be soft enough to wear away, else it produces no punk, and hard enough to wear slowly, or the heat is not enough to light the punk, and, of course, it should be highly inflammable. Those that I have had the best luck with are balsam fir, cottonwood roots, tamarack, European larch, red cedar, white cedar, Oregon cedar, basswood, cypress, and sometimes second-growth white pine. ”

“ The beautiful dog-wood's sweeping sprays and broad leaves, the maiden-hairs glossy wreathes and pearly buds, and the soft emerald moss, clothing the old fallen trees with its velvet tapestry, and hiding their decay with its cool rich beauty, while the sun light falls in golden tracery down the birch trees silver trunk, and the sparkling water flashes in the rays, or sings on its sweet melody unseen amid the luxuriant vegetation that conceals it. ”

“ If we consider only the heartwood, the black color of the persimmon, the dark brown of the walnut, the light brown of the white oaks, the reddish brown of the red oaks, the yellowish white of the tulip and poplars, the brownish red of the redwood and cedars, the yellow of the papaw and sumac, are all reliable marks of distinction and color. Together with luster and weight, they are only too often the only features depended upon in practice. Newly formed wood, like that of the outer few rings, has but little color. ”

“ The redwood is the only lumber that can take the place of the white pine, answer as a satisfactory substitute for mahogany and black walnut, displace oak for railroad ties, cypress and cedar for shingles, and surpass all other woods for durability when in contact with the earth or when exposed to moisture. ”

“ A stile to be crossed at its edge, where a little stream, unseen, sways the stiff exuberant angelica that grows from it, gives the word to pause, and with a rush the silence and the solitude fill the brain. The wood is of uncounted age; the ground on which it stands is more ancient than the surrounding fields, for it rises and falls stormily, with huge boulders here and there; not a path intrudes upon it; the undergrowth is impenetrable to all but fox and bird and this cool red light about the trunks of the trees. ”

“ The great variety in the woods and groves through which the road winds, renders every step picturesque. The Black Wood is an extensive tract of fine firs growing up the sides of the mountains, and covering every crag; and at the bases, tracts of charming elms, mountain ash, oak, ash, birch, and many other sorts of trees intermixed; and by the lake's edge, an abundance of alder, hazel, mountain ash, young oaks, and a great variety of shrubs and small branching wood, all in its true natural state. ”